Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism (also known as traditional liberalism''Stetson, Brad. Human Dignity and Contemporary Liberalism. Praeger/Greenwood 1998. p. 26 and ''laissez-faire liberalism''Adams, Ian, ''Political Ideology Today (2002), Manchester University Press, page 20) is a doctrine stressing the importance of human rationality, individual property rights, natural rights, constitutional limitations of government, the protection of civil liberties, an economic policy with heavy emphasis on free markets, and individual freedom from restraint as exemplified in the writings of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Jeremy Bentham, and John Stuart Millhttp://www.bartelby.net/65/li/liberali.html, and other thinkers. As such, it is seen as the fusion of economic liberalism with political liberalism.Adams, Ian. Political Ideology Today. Manchester University Press. 2001. p. 20 The "normative core" of classical liberalism is the idea that in an environment of laissez-faire, a spontaneous order or invisible hand market emerges that benefits the society.Razeen, Sally. Classical Liberalism and International Economic Order: Studies in Theory and Intellectual History, Routledge (UK) ISBN 0-415-16493-1, 1998, p. 17 "Hence the normative core of classical liberalism is the approbation of economic freedom or laissez-faire - Adam Smith's 'obvious and simple system of natural liberty' - out of which spontaneously emerges a vast and intricate system of cooperation in exchanging goods and services and catering for a plenitude of wants." Though, it is not necessarily opposed to the provision of a few basic public goods by the state that the market is thought to not being able to provide.Aaron, Eric. What's Right?. Rosenberg Publishing. 2003. p. 75 The qualification classical was applied in retrospect to distinguish early nineteenth-century liberalism from the "new liberalism" associated with Thomas Hill Green, Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse,Richardson, James L. Contending Liberalisms in World Politics: Ideology and Power (2001), Lynne Rienner Publishers, page 52. "The term classical liberalism was applied in retrospect to distinguish earlier nineteenth-century liberalism from the new or modern liberalism, here termed social liberalism, of Green and Hobhouse. It is taken here to include the political economists' laissez-faire within a broader political philosophy whose central value was securing of individual freedom against arbitrary state power." and Franklin D. Roosevelt.Arthur Schelesinger Jr. [http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/schleslib.html Liberalism in America: A Note for Europeans] from The Politics of Hope, Riverside Press, Boston, 1962, which grants a more interventionist role for the state. Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman are credited with a revival of classical liberalism in the 20th century after it fell out of favor beginning in the late nineteenth century and much of the twentieth century.Girvetz, Harry K. and Minogue Kenneth.[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9117288?query=liberalism&ct=eb Liberalism], Encyclopedia Britannica (online), p. 16, retrieved May 16,2006 "With modern liberalism seemingly powerless to boost stagnating living standards in mature industrial economies, the more energetic response to the problem turned out to be a revival of classical liberalism. The intellectual foundations of this revival were primarily the work of the Austrian-born British economist Friedrich von Hayek and the American economist Milton Friedman." Conway, David. Classical liberalism: The Unvanquished Ideal. Palgrave, p. 8 "After falling into almost complete intellectual disrepute towards the end of the nineteenth century, classical liberalism was rescued from oblivion and revived in the twentieth century by such notable thinkers as Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek." Libertarians of a minarchist persuasion use the term "classical liberalism" almost interchangeably with the term "libertarianism",Cubeddu, Raimondo. Preface to Perspectives of Libertarianism, Etica e Politica, Università di Trieste. Vol. V, No. 2, 2003 "It is often difficult to distinguish between "Libertarianism” and "Classical Liberalism." Those two labels are used almost interchangeably by those who we may call libertarians of a "minarchist" persuasion: scholars who, following Locke and Nozick, believe a State is needed in order to achieve effective protection of property rights." while the correctness of this usage is disputed (see "Classical liberalism" and libertarianism, below). Nevertheless, if both philosophies are not the same, classical liberalism does resemble modern libertarianism in many ways. Schmidt, Steffen W. American Government and Politics Today. Thomson Wadworth (2004). p. 17 Overview In America, liberalism took a pragmatic turn in response to the industrial revolution. During the time of Thomas Jefferson, a laissez-faire economy seemed appropriate to the liberal goal of "equality of opportunity" for everyone. In the opinion of Arthur Schlesinger Jr.: By the 1970s, however, lagging economic growth and increased levels of taxation and debt spurred a revival of a new classical liberalism. Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman argued against government intervention in fiscal policy and their ideas were embraced by conservative political parties in the US and Great Britain beginning in the 1980s.Girvetz, Harry K. and Minogue Kenneth. [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9117288?query=liberalism&ct=eb Liberalism], Encyclopædia Britannica (online), p. 16, retrieved May 16, 2006. In fact, Ronald Reagan credited Bastiat, von Mises, and Hayek as influences.Reason Magazine. Insider Ronald Reagan: A Reason Interview. July 1975 Classical liberalism places a particular emphasis on the sovereignty of the individual, with private property rights being seen as essential to individual liberty. This forms the philosophical basis for laissez-faire public policy. The ideology of the classical liberals argued against direct democracy "for there is nothing in the bare idea of majority rule to show that majorities will always respect the rights of property or maintain rule of law."Ryan, Alan. "Liberalism". A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, editors Goodin, Robert E. and Pettit, Philip. Blackwell Publishing, 1995, p.293. For example, James Madison argued for a constitutional republic with protections for individual liberty, over a pure democracy, reasoning that in a pure democracy, a "common passion or interest will be felt by a majority, and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party."Madison, James. Federalist Paper no. 10, 1787 In economics, some classical liberals believe that "an unfettered market" is the most efficient mechanism to satisfy human needs and channel resources to their most productive uses: they "are more suspicious than conservatives of all but the most minimal government."Quinton, Anthony. "Conservativism", A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, editors Goodin, Robert E. and Pettit, Philip. Blackwell Publishing, 1995, p. 246. Their advocacy of an "unregulated free market" is founded on an "assumption about individuals being rational, self-interested and methodical in the pursuit of their goals."Drilane, Robert and Parkinson, Gary. [http://bitbucket.icaap.org/dict.pl?term=CLASSICAL%20LIBERALISM Online Dictionary of the Social Sciences]. Adam Smith, however, was not an advocate of pure capitalism, and allowed for many exceptions to a strictly free-market economy.Block, Walter. fr: "Adam Smith and the Left." Jeet Heer. National Post (December 3, 2001) Classical liberalism holds that rights exist independently of government. Thomas Jefferson called these inalienable rights: "...rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law', because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819 For classical liberalism, rights are of a negative nature — rights that require that other individuals (and governments) refrain from interfering with individual liberty, whereas social liberalism (also called modern liberalism) holds that individuals have a right to be provided with certain benefits or services by others.Kelley, David. 1998. A Life of One's Own: Individual Rights and the Welfare State. Cato Institute. Unlike social liberals, classical liberals are "hostile to the welfare state." They do not have an interest in material equality but only in "equality before the law."Kukathas, Chandran in the book The Many and the One: Pluralism in the Modern World, editors Richard Madsen and Tracy B. Strong, 2003, p. 61 Classical liberalism is critical of social liberalism and takes offense at group rights being pursued at the expense of individual rights.Duncan-Aimone, Katherine and Evans, Mark, Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Liberalism: Evidence and Experience, ISBN 1-57958-339-3, Routledge (UK), 2001, p. 55 Friedrich Hayek identified two different traditions within classical liberalism: the "British tradition" and the "French tradition". Hayek saw the British philosophers David Hume, Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, Josiah Tucker, Edmund Burke and William Paley as representative of a tradition that articulated beliefs in empiricism, the common law, and in traditions and institutions which had spontaneously evolved but were imperfectly understood. The French tradition included Rousseau, Condorcet, the Encyclopedists and the Physiocrats. This tradition believed in rationalism and the unlimited powers of reason, and sometimes showed hostility to tradition and religion. Hayek conceded that the national labels did not exactly correspond to those belonging to each tradition: Hayek saw the Frenchmen Montesquieu, Constant and Tocqueville as belonging to the "British tradition" and the British Thomas Hobbes, Godwin, Priestley, Richard Price and Thomas Paine as belonging to the "French tradition".Hayek, F. A. ''The Constitution of Liberty (London: Routledge, 1976), pp. 55-6. Hayek also rejected the label "laissez faire" as originating from the French tradition and alien to the beliefs of Hume, Smith and Burke. Origins Modern classical liberals trace their ideology to ancient Greek and medieval thought. They cite the 16th century School of Salamanca in Spain as a precursor, with its emphasis on human rights and popular sovereignty, its belief that morality need not be grounded in religion, and its moral defence of commerce. But its classic formulation came in The Age of Enlightenment. The Wealth of Nations (1776) by Scottish philosopher Adam Smith is one of the classic works that rejects the philosophy of mercantilism, which advocated state interventionism in the economy and protectionism. These early liberals saw mercantilism as enriching privileged elites at the expense of well being of the populace. Another early expression is the tradition of a Nordic school of liberalism set in motion by a Finnish parliamentarian Anders Chydenius. Classical liberalism, free trade, and world peace Several liberals, including Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, and Richard Cobden, argued that the free exchange of goods between nations could lead to world peace. Modern American political scientists including Dahl, Doyle, Russet, and O'Neil, recognize that early liberals believed free trade could lead to peace. Dr. Gartzke, of Columbia University states, "Scholars like Montesquie, Adam Smith, Richard Cobden, Norman Angell, and Richard Rosencrance have long speculated that free markets have the potential to free states from the looming prospect of recurrent warfare".Gartzke, Erik. 2005. "Economic Freedom and Peace" in Economic Freedom of the World: 2005 Annual Report. Fraser Institute American political scientists John R. Oneal and Bruce M. Russett, well known for their work on the democratic peace theory state, :"The classical liberals advocated policies to increase liberty and prosperity. They sought to empower the commercial class politically and to abolish royal charters, monopolies, and the protectionist policies of mercantilism so as to encourage entrepreneurship and increase productive efficiency. They also expected democracy and laissez-faire economics to diminish the frequency of war".Oneal, John R., Bruce M. Russet. 1997. The Classical Liberals Were Right:Democracy, Interdependence, and Conflict, 1950-1985. International Studies Quarterly 41, p.267-295 Adam Smith argued in the Wealth of Nations that as societies progressed from hunter gatherers to industrial societies the spoils of war would rise, but the costs of war would rise further, making war difficult and costly for industrialized nations.Doyle, Michael. Ways of War and Peace, Norton, 1997. p. 237 Cobden believed that military expenditures worsened the welfare of the state and benefited a small but concentrated elite minority. Summing up British imperialism, which he believed was the result the economic restrictions of mercantalist policies (not free trade.) To Cobden, and many classical liberals, those who advocated peace must also advocate free markets. Classical liberalism and freedom Executive of The Objectivist Center and libertarian David Kelley states that classical liberals had a concept of freedom that is entirely at odds with the modern liberal conception.Kelley, David. 1998. A Life of One's Own: Individual Rights and the Welfare State. Cato Institute. While they argued for free trade and a limited central authority modern liberals have broadened freedom and human rights to include expanded government authority over property, labor, and capital. Adam Smith argued that in order to best serve human welfare, individuals should be left free to follow their own interests, which were to “sustain life and to acquire goods" and that a government should abstain "from interference in free enterprise, putting checks only on undue strife and competition."See introduction to Smith, Adam, Wealth of Nations. 1776.1991. New York: Prometheus Books. On the classical liberal concept of freedom the Edinburgh Review wrote in 1843: :“Be assured that freedom of trade, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of action, are but modifications of one great fundamental truth, and that all must be maintained or all risked; they stand and fall together."Epstein, Richard. 1998. Principles for a Free Society. Reading: Perseus Books. p. 322 David Kelley also suggests that classical liberals understood liberty to be a negative freedom--a freedom from the coercive actions of others.Kelley, David. 1998. A Life of One's Own: Individual Rights and the Welfare State. Cato Institute. Modern liberals include positive freedoms in liberty, which are rights to the provision of goods.Kelley, David. 1998. A Life of One's Own: Individual Rights and the Welfare State. Cato Institute. Modern understandings of positive freedom are opposite the classical thinking of negative freedom. An early John Stuart Mill (at this time was a liberal advocate of limited government and free markets) recognized this difference stating, :"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant."Mill, John Stuart. Chapter One. On Liberty. 1859. Redefinition of liberalism from laissez-faire form to interventionist form The cause(s) of the shift in liberalism in the United States "between 1877 and 1937...from laissez-faire constitutionalism to New Deal statism, from classical liberalism to democratic social-welfarism" has been a subject of study among scholars.Novak, William J. [http://archive.is/20120803004534/www.historycooperative.org/journals/lhr/24.1/novak.html The Not-So-Strange Birth of the Modern American State: A Comment on James A. Henretta's "Charles Evans Hughes and the Strange Death of Liberal America"], Law and History Review, Volume 24, Number 1, Spring 2006) The Industrial Revolution greatly increased material wealth, but made social problems, such as pollution, child labor, and overcrowding in the cities, more visible. Material and scientific progress led to greater longevity and a reduced mortality rate. The population increased dramatically, as technology improved agricultural output, millions more could survive whereas a century before they would have perished. As F.A. Hayek noted, : “The proletariat which capitalism can be said to have ‘created’ was thus not a proportion of the population which would have existed without it and which it had degraded to a lower level; it was an additional population which was enabled to grow up by the new opportunities for employment which capitalism provided.”Hayek, F.A. 1960. The Constitution of Liberty. Chicago: Regnery. Increased agricultural output through technology reduced the labor necessary for farming creating a migration of labor from rural to urban areas. The industrial revolution saw for the first time rising demands for food and decreasing food prices.Kelley, David. 1998. A Life of One's Own: Individual Rights and the Welfare State. Cato Institute. Labor wages, in fact did not decline, but rose above inflation, despite a decrease in the hours worked by labor and an increase in the labor supply.Epstein, Richard. 2006 How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution. Cato Institute Wages saw a steady increase, without government assistance, prior to the introduction of a national minimum wage.Ibid. See also, Milton Friedman's Free to Choose. The industrial revolution also saw a shift of child labor from farms to factories, but also saw a decline in the use of child labor prior to government laws banning child labor, as wealth and productivity increased, thus allowing parents to send children to school rather than work to earn for the family.Epstein, Richard. 2006 How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution. Cato Institute Many laissez-faire economists felt that these problems of industrial society would correct themselves without government action. In fact, this was occurring, just not in the manner and style hoped by progressive reformers.Epstein, Richard. 2006 How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution. Cato Institute.Kelley, David. 1998. A Life of One's Own: Individual Rights and the Welfare State. Cato Institute. Alexis de Tocqueville illuminated the events of the early industrial revolution and why wealthy societies became more concerned with the poor, stating, : “The progress of civilization…brings society to alleviate miseries which are not even thought about in less civilized societies. In a country where the majority is ill-clothed, ill-housed, ill-fed, who thinks of giving clean clothes, healthy food, comfortable quarters to the poor? The majority of the English, having all these things, regard their absence as a frightful misfortune; society believes itself bound to come to the aid of those who lack them, and cures evils which are not even recognized elsewhere.”de Tocqueville, Alexis. 1968. “Memoir on Pauperism,” in Toceville and Beaumont on Social Reform, ed and trans. Seymore Drescher. New York: Harper. Alexis de Tocqueville’s insight supports Milton Friedman’s idea that the industrial revolution did not create more poverty as was claimed by Progressives of the time, but created more visible poor. Friedman, Milton. 1980. Free To Choose. In the 19th century, the voting franchise in most democracies was extended, and these newly enfranchised citizens often voted in favor of government intervention into the economy. Rising literacy rates and the spread of knowledge led to social activism in a variety of forms. Those calling themselves progressives, called for laws against child labor and laws requiring minimum standards of worker safety. The laissez faire economic liberals considered such measures to be an unjust imposition upon liberty, as well as a hindrance to economic development. This 19th century social liberalism is considered as the first significant split of modern liberalism from "classical liberalism." In 1911, L. T. Hobhouse published Liberalism, which summarized what social liberals believe is a "new liberalism," including qualified acceptance of government intervention in the economy, and the collective right to equality in dealings, what he called "just consent". So different from classical liberalism did Hayek see Hobhouse's book that he commented that it would have been more accurately titled Socialism instead.Hayek, F. A., The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (University of Chicago Press, 1991), p. 110. (Hobhouse called his beliefs "liberal socialism".) In some European countries the term "liberalism" refers mostly to what is called "libertarianism" in the United States, i.e., European "liberalism" is most often in favor of a free market-economy and a more restricted government. In Australia the major conservative party is called the Liberal Party of Australia, where "liberal" was chosen to refer back to the old Commonwealth Liberal Party and also to distinguish it from the "socialist" Labor Party. However, because of familiarity with contemporary US usage, the term "liberal" can take on a variety of meanings ranging from member or supporter of the Liberal party, to classical liberal, to "liberal" in the contemporary American sense (ie modern liberalism). Disputes over whether modern liberalism is derived from classical liberalism Whether modern liberalism is founded upon the philosophy of classical liberalism is a subject of dispute. Scholar Leonard Liggio (a self-described classical liberal) holds that modern liberalism does not share the same intellectual foundations as classical liberalism. He says, :"Classical liberalism is liberalism, but the current collectivists have captured that designation in the United States. Happily they did not capture it in Europe, and were glad enough to call themselves socialists. But no one in America wants to be called socialist and admit what they are." He believes that this is why liberalism means something different in Europe from in America.Christianity, Classical Liberalism are Liberty's Foundations, interview with Leonard Liggio. Religion & Liberty, Acton Institute, 2003 Proponents of the Austrian School and the Chicago School (sometimes called neo-classical economists), such as Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek, also reject claims that modern liberalism represents a continuous development from classical liberalism.Kohl, B. and Warner, M., Scales of Neoliberalism International Journal of Urban and Regional Research Volume 28 (2004) pg1Heywood, A. (1998) Political Ideologies: An Introduction Macmillan Press pg93 According to Friedman :"Beginning in the late nineteenth century, and especially after 1930 in the United States, the term liberalism came to be associated with a very different emphasisis, particularly in economic policy. It came to be associated with a readiness to rely primarily on the state rather than on private voluntary arrangements to achieve objectives regarded as desirable. The catchwords became welfare and equality rather than freedom. The nineteenth century liberal regarded an extension of freedom as the most effective way to promote welfare and equality; the twentieth century liberal regards welfare and equality as either prerequisistes of or alternatives to freedom. In the name of welfare and equality, the twentieth-century liberal has come to favor a revival of the very policies of state intervention and paternalism against which classical liberalism fought. In the very act of turning the clock back to seventeenth-century mercantalism, he is fond of castigating true liberals as reactionary!"Friedman, Milton. Capitalism and Freedom, University of Chicago Press, Chapter 2 Neo-classical economists instead see themselves as the true inheritors of classical liberalism. For example, Hayek argued that he was not a conservative because he was a liberal, and had refused to give up that label to what he considered to be modern usurpers.Hayek, F.A. (1960) The Constitution of Liberty University of Chicago Press chapter "Why I am not a Conservative" Joseph Schumpeter stated, "As a supreme, if unintended compliment, the enemies of the system of private enterprise have thought it wise to appropriate its label," implying that modern liberals have "stolen" the word and given it a definition opposite its original meaning. Daniel Yergin, a pulitzer prize winning author, and Joeseph Stanislaw write on the subject of the changed meaning of liberalism in America, :"In the 1920s, the New York Times criticized "the expropriation of the time-honored word 'liberal'" and argued that "the radical red school of thought...hand back the world 'liberal' to its original owners.""Yergin, Daniel and Joseph Stanislaw. 2001. "The Commanding Heights: Battle for the World Economy" New York: Touchstone Books. p. xv. Following from this New York Times criticism, they argue that leading Progressive writers used the word liberal as a "substitute for progresivism, which had become tarnished by its association with their fallen hero, Theodore Roosevelt." They also concur with F.A. Hayek view (in his essay "Why I Am Not a Conservative") that Franklin Roosevelt adopted the term to "ward off accusations of being left-wing" Roosevelt declaring that liberalism was "plain English for a changed concept of the duty and responsibility of government toward economic life."Yergin, Daniel and Joseph Stanislaw. 2001. "The Commanding Heights: Battle for the World Economy" New York: Touchstone Books. p. xv. Criticism of neo-classical economists as classical liberals Many have rejected the claim describing neo-classical economists as "right-wing economic liberals", "liberal conservatives" and as the "new right", viewing their efforts at co-opting the term as ignoring the political side of early liberalism and only focusing on the work of the classical economists such as Smith and Ricardo.Lessnoff, M. H. (1999) Political Philosophers of the Twentieth Century Blackwell; Heywood, A. (1998) Political Ideologies: An Introduction Macmillan Press pg155; Festenstein, M. and Kenny, M. (2005) Political Ideologies Oxford University Press Furthermore, it has been argued that "Hayek's view of classical liberal principles is a peculiar one" which ignores the work of pre-eminent thinkers such as Locke and Mill.Gamble, A. (1996) "Hayek: The Iron Cage of Liberty" Blackwell Publishers pg 106 "Classical liberalism" and libertarianism Raimondo Cubeddu of the Department of Political Science of the University of Pisa says "It is often difficult to distinguish between 'Libertarianism' and 'Classical Liberalism'. Those two labels are used almost interchangeably by those who we may call libertarians of a 'minarchist' persuasion: scholars who, following Locke and Nozick, believe a State is needed in order to achieve effective protection of property rights".Cubeddu, Raimondo. Preface to Perspectives of Libertarianism, Etica e Politica, Università di Trieste. Vol. V, No. 2, 2003 Libertarians see themselves as sharing many philosophical, political, and economic undertones with classical liberalism, such as the ideas of laissez-faire government, free markets, and individual freedom. Nevertheless, others reject this as a mere superficial resemblance: :"Libertarianism’s resemblance to liberalism is superficial; in the end, libertarians reject essential liberal institutions. Correctly understood, libertarianism resembles a view that liberalism historically defined itself against, the doctrine of private political power that underlies feudalism. Like feudalism, libertarianism conceives of justified political power as based in a network of private contracts. It rejects the idea, essential to liberalism, that political power is a public power, to be impartially exercised for the common good." Freeman, S., Illiberal Libertarians: Why Libertarianism Is Not a Liberal View Philosophy & Public Affairs Volume 30 (2001) pg3 Those who emphasize the distinction between classical liberalism and libertarianism point out that some of the key thinkers of classical liberalism were far from libertarian: :"Adam Smith should be seen as a moderate free enterpriser who appreciated markets but made many, many exceptions. He allowed government all over the place."Block, Walter. fr: "Adam Smith and the Left." Jeet Heer. National Post (December 3, 2001) Further, some argue that libertarianism and liberalism are fundamentally incompatible because the checks and balances provided by liberal institutions conflict with the support for complete economic deregulation offered by most libertarians. Haworth, A. (1994) Anti-libertarianism. Markets, philosophy and Myth Routledge pg 27 However, arguments over the similarities are made difficult by the large number of factions in both classical liberalism and libertarianism. For example, minarchist libertarians are not necessarily in favor of complete economic deregulation in the first place and often support tax-funded provision of a select few public goods. Alan Ryan, professor of Politics at Princeton, argues that the claim from :"contemporary libertarians...that they are classical liberals...is not wholly true. There is at least one strain of libertarian thought represented by Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia that advocates the decriminalization of 'victimless crimes' such as prostitution, drug-taking and unorthodox sexual activities. There is nothing of that in John Locke or Adam Smith." Having written nothing regarding these subjects, however, does not negate that there may have been support, or that prostitution and illegal narcotics were already legal (or not legally enforced). However, if one difference remains between modern libertarians and their claimed classical liberal ancestors, it lies in suicide. According to Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative, a person may not take his or her own life, even if it is rational to do so. Modern libertarians believe suicide and assisted suicide should be legal. This singular difference should not necessarily negate the relationship between classical liberalism and libertarianism, especially considering the wide disparity between modern American liberalism and classical liberalism. See also *Austrian School *Capitalism *Free market *Globalization *Privatization *Liberalization *Liberalism *Libertarianism *Manchesterism *Contributions to liberal theory *Key thinkers in classical liberalism References External links * [http://web.archive.org/web/20060524134557/http://www.heartland.org/pdf/16422.pdf A Guide to Classical-Liberal Think Tanks] by Joseph L. Bast * [http://www.ncpa.org/pub/special/20051220-special.html What is Classical Liberalism?] by John C. Goodman * The Liberal Institute http://www.liberalinstitute.com A classical liberal think tank based in New York City * The Free Enterprise Institute ILE A classical liberal think tank based in Lima, Peru Category:Wikipedia articles needing factual verification Category:Liberalism Category:Political ideologies Category:Political economy Category:Libertarianism